Press release

Mon, Feb 18th 2013 05:05 pm

Pictured from top to bottom are Dr. Brian Rambarran and Dr. John Rutkowski.

Operating room staff
members at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center Monday celebrated the
successful completion of the hospital's 200th robotic surgical
procedure by "SAL" the Surgical Robot. Dr. John Rutkowski and Dr. Brian
Rambarran of Western New York Urology Associates performed the milestone
operation.

"Our
experience with 'SAL' has been overwhelmingly positive," said obstetrician/gynecologist
Dr. Donna Azam Feldman, the head of the Memorial's division of robotic surgery.
"Patients like the smaller incisions, minimal scarring, reduced pain and
quicker post-operative recoveries that robotic surgery promotes. As word
gets around, more and more patients are asking if their surgeries can be
performed robotically."

"Performing
robotic surgery at Niagara Falls Memorial has proven to be a real convenience
to our patients who want to enjoy its advantages while staying close to home,"
Rutkowski said.

"SAL," which stands for Save
A Life, is actually the da Vinci Si Surgical System. Specially
trained surgeons began using SAL in March 2012 and the system is now utilized
by more than a dozen gynecologists,
gynecological oncologists, urologists, bariatric surgeons, colorectal surgeons
and general surgeons to perform minimally invasive robotic
surgery at Memorial.